August

August
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August 24, 2004:

I have fixed the problem with the friendserver occasionally struggling when large numbers of people were playing.

I have rewritten a large chunk of the friendserver system, and have also assigned it more memory. As a result it is now running about 4x faster, and should easily be able to handle all the players even at peak time.

Thanks for your patience whilst I fixed this
Andrew

Troll Stronghold Quest

The Imperial Guard's attack on Death Plateau was overrun by trolls coming from the Stronghold to the North! Dunstan's son Godric was captured and taken to the Stronghold.

If you feel brave enough, talk to Denulth and travel through Trollheim to go rescue Godric.

Players with a low combat level beware, you will have to defeat some high-level trolls to complete this quest.

Changes To NPC Levels

You may notice that some npc levels have changed with this update. Due to a bug, certain npcs levels didn't accurately show how strong or weak they really were. Even though you now see a different level when you look at these npcs, most haven't actually changed in difficulty to kill.

August 17, 2004:

A chill descended over the office this morning, as we entered ready to go about our daily duties, only to find a grotesque creature of darkness looming over our desks. Luckily it was just a messenger sent to inform us that Zamorak, our resident malevolent deity, had some issues he wished to get off of his chest in Letters 23.

Those gluttons for punishment who are under the impression that Zamorak might be giving away a few secrets about upcoming updates in amongst his usual insults and sarcasm, should head on over to the ever popular Library of Varrock and see what might be contained therein...

August 12, 2004:

Last night saw a record 42,500 simultaneous players! As a result a few of our servers were getting low on spare bandwidth.

To make sure all these extra players doesn't cause the game to lag we have just purchased some extra bandwidth at the busiest locations, so it should be working much better now. We'll also continue to keep an eye on the bandwidth use to make sure we always have enough.

August 9, 2004:

Trolls have come down from the north and are camped on Death Plateau, they are using this base to launch attacks on the principality of Burthorpe! The Imperial Guard is taking heavy losses, they need your help!

If you are in search of adventure speak to Denulth, the leader of the Imperial Guard, in the Burthorpe training camp north of the Hero's Guild and accept the Death Plateau quest!

While this is a quest completable at any level, players with a low combat level should be very cautious or they could come to a sudden and sticky end at the hands of trolls.

This update introduces the town of Burthorpe and a troll area, which is an area that we have plans to expand in future updates with some quests classed in the experienced quests bracket.

We have made some adjustments to the agility arena. More than one person can now go over the low wall at once and it doesn't take as long to use the handholds.

Some colorblind people were struggling with the new strange boxes due to them being fairly transparent, therefore they are now no longer transparent.

Today we have released a superb replacement for our exisiting world map in the form of an applet. With the new applet you can scroll around and zoom in and out with ease. The applet also contains all the new areas that have been discovered in RuneScape, including Mort Myre Swamp and Death Plateau! Saving the best to last, clicking items in the key highlights their placement on the map - helping you locate all sorts of useful places much faster.

August 4, 2004:

Today regular visitors to our website might notice that we have massively overhauled the front page!

We know some of you might be used to our old layout, but we think that once you are used to the new design you will agree that it is easier to navigate. We have tried to make the front-page make better use of the available screen space, as well as making the most accessed areas (for example the worldmap) easier and quicker to get to.

The layout of the manual has also been improved, and lots of new information has been added, including a few new sections for you to discover yourselves!

You will also be glad to know we have added an all new exclusive wallpaper to our extra files section, which has moved towards the bottom of the main menu.

Finally, Mozilla Firefox 0.9 users will be pleased to know that we have improved compatibility with that browser, so you will now be able to login to the secure section of the site with less hassle than before.

August 3, 2004:

We have had to move worlds 19,20,21 and 25 to a different location, because the company that was providing bandwidth for them previously has suddenly ceased trading. This meant we had to arrange an alternative at very short notice.

So we could get them up and running again as quickly as possible, those worlds have now been moved to one of our other existing providers.

Their new home is 'nlayer'. We already had a few worlds there and were very happy with their reliability/performance, so in fact the relocated worlds should hopefully run faster than ever at their new location.

All the worlds should now be functioning normally again.

August 2, 2004:

Players may be thrilled to witness the addition of new random events today. The events you may come across in your usual routine of playing are as follows;

Maze:
You might get teleported into a magical maze by some mysterious old man, but don't worry. Find the centre and you'll be released, along with a reward. The quicker you manage it, the bigger your reward! You will then be put back where you came from.

Strange Box:
If you're given a Strange Box by a mysterious old man, open it and answer the easy question to receive a reward. Be warned though; if you spend too long without opening a box, or get a question wrong, they will start replicating in your inventory, so you will have more boxes to solve. You will only get a reward when you have cleared your inventory of boxes. The only way to remove a box from your inventory is to answer the question.

Mime:
There's a mystical theatre hidden away which you may get teleported to. (Coincidentally enough, by an old and mysterious man). All you have to do is follow the Mime's performance by repeating his actions and you'll be released back to where you were previously along with a reward.

Note: If any mysterious old men teleport you to the maze or the mime they will do it immediately. If they instead stand there shouting your name, you should respond like normal. Ignoring old men in the hopes they will teleport you to a maze will not work.

Zamorak, our much-maligned deity of chaos and destruction, has informed us that he has some answers to players questions in our new edition of Letters 22.

We say 'informed', we actually mean 'threatened to suffer a horrible fate involving honey, rope, and a particularly vicious swarm'.

Those intrigued to know what secrets might be revealed, and who wish to spare us honest, hard working Jagex folk his wrath, should make their way immediately to the Library of Varrock - please don't hurt us Zamorak!